Madonna thought the legendary photographer was angry at her, maybe "because I'm still nice to Herb Ritts??" She was making A League Of Their Own at the time, and wrote about how much she hated actresses — particularly Geena Davis:

"I cannot suffer any more than I have in the past month learning how to play baseball with a bunch of girls (yuk) in Chicago (double yuk) I have a tan, I am dirty all day and I hardly ever wear make-up. Penny Marshall is Lavern — Geena Davis is a Barbie doll and when God decided where the beautiful men were going to live in the world, he did not choose Chicago. I have made a few friends but they are athletes, not actresses. I hate actresses." She concludes her note by suggesting she and Meisel work more together "to do this book thing," an apparent reference to what would become the project Sex. Any idea what she meant by "Lavern"? [Letters of Note]

This morning, everyone gets a new perfume! Beyoncé — you get a perfume! [WWD]

Katy Perry, you get a perfume, too — but only if you dress up in a latex catsuit and pose with a playfully oversized ball of yarn! [WWD]

Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour may be reconciling, but a nude bust of Seymour by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan made on commission for Brant will still be auctioned next month. The sculpture, of which three copies were made, depicts Seymour as a sort of a Real Doll hunting trophy, and it's the creepiest thing you'll see all day. [NYDN]

HBO is reportedly considering a new comedy series set in the New York fashion industry and starring Tea Leoni. R.J. Cutler, who directed The September Issue, is also involved, as is Six Feet Under writer/producer Kate Robin. The project has the working title Spring/Fall and Leoni would be "half of a dysfunctional partnership between two women with different approaches to career, family, and friendship." Sounds like lots of heart-warming hijinx will ensue. [DH]

Although Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has previously met the Pope in her official capacity in Paris, when her husband, the French President, traveled to the Vatican for a private audience with the pontiff earlier this month, Vatican officials allegedly requested that she stay behind in Paris. Supposedly, because of her modeling career and occasional nude work, the Holy See was concerned that the Italian press wouldn't be able to restrain itself from printing Bruni-Sarkozy's old, racy photos next to pictures of Pope Benedict. However, the source for this story is Le Canard Enchaîné, a satirical paper, so perhaps we ought to take it with a grain of salt. In our opinion, it's more likely that ifthe Vatican asked that Bruni-Sarkozy stay home, it was because last year she basically told the Pope to fuck off with his idiotic condoms-cause-AIDS argument. [Telegraph]

Nars is opening its first boutique in New York's West Village next spring. [WWD]

More crazy rumors about former Rochas designer Olivier Theyskens: "Remember years ago when Theyskens, at only 25, was interviewing at Givenchy and asked for a salary twice that of McQueen's when he started? (They refused.) Well, he's either a very skilled negotiator or compulsive self-saboteur. We hear that in the last several years he's turned down the job at both Valentino — despite a fortune offered by the Marzotto Group — and Dior. And get this, apparently he turned down Dior not once, but twice. Why? Because, according to conventional wisdom, there is no life after Dior. Many see it as an ailing house and view John Galliano as a protégé of Helene Arnault, wife of LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault. As for Valentino, Theyskens likely refused because what he really wants is the Lanvin gig in 2012 (as we previously theorized) and because the job is in Rome, not Paris. Finally, we've even heard that, just last year, Theyskens declined the job at Oscar de la Renta, where rumors abound that the 78-year-old designer may soon retire." [Hint]

W had a hard time keeping the images of a nude Kim Kardashian covered in silver paint from leaking — after Perez Hilton posted a copy, W's prompt cease-and-desist couldn't hold back the Internet. Weirdly, the magazine seems unwilling to try and profit from its own pictures, by, say, publishing them. "We were just not duplicating photos for this issue; we had some great outtakes to feature," said a spokesperson. [WWD]

H&M's September same-store sales — sales at stores open longer than 12 months, a measure that controls for store openings — rose by a very healthy 8% on last year. [WWD]

Gap wants to double the size of its online and international business in the coming years. [WWD]

L'Oréal is launching a new line of anti-aging skin care creams in the U.S. (L'Oréal Youth Code has already been available in the U.K. for about a year.) This one really works, L'Oréal like totally swears! Women's Wear Daily reports: "GenActiv technology, the company said, is the secret to Youth Code, which has two key ingredients. There's Biolysat (a lysate of bifidobacteria that is obtained by a fermentation process of Bifidus bacteria), which acts at the epidermis level and tells genes to act faster in the recovery process. Then there's adenosine, a molecule that is found in skin cells that acts at the dermis level to produce collagen." Doesn't that sound like awesome stuff to pay $25 bucks for? [WWD]